Summary Of Richard Rodriguez's Barrio Boy And Richard Rodrigoz

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Recommended: Mexican immigration to America

Turning Pocho
Early in the 20th century, there was a large increase of immigration not only in California, but the whole United states, and according to Dr. Joshua Paddison of Wittenberg University, “One-half million Mexicans migrated, with more than 30 percent setting in California” (Paddison, 1921-present: Modern California). Some of the immigrants’ transition from Mexico and into California be seen in both Ernesto Galarza’s “Barrio Boy”, and Richard Rodriguez’s “Proofs”. While both differentiate by their time period, there are some similar behavior patterns, such as the immigrants crossing over the border and into different states, their work, and their social life. The migration for any the Latinos wasn’t just a simple plane ride from …show more content…

Since Galarza grew up in a strong community he was able to experience support from the colonia mexicana in Sacramento, while Rodriguez accounts for Mexican immigrants in various locations in California. Most of the immigrants Rodriguez interviewed or witnessed all had a resemblance to nostalgia. He had saw many drunk and lonely Mexican men, some being only teenagers, and even the men who lived with their families were still homesick. Rodriguez even said that, “the city is evil” (66), while meeting a preacher whose early years were all about drugs, gangs, and being a “junkie”. While most of everything Rodriguez experienced were negative, Galarza had an opposite perspective. It may have be the different locations or time periods that both authors experienced the immigrants lives, but the relations between the Mexicans were more than just the family they had to support, and instead it was the whole community. As Mexicans migrated to the community in Sacramento that Galarza grew up in, they became chicanos, and they were “the name of an unskilled worker born in Mexico and just arrived in the United States” (267). It was so much easier to for the immigrants to make money since the fellow Mexicans provided assistance to those in need of jobs or a place to live, and of it was provided by trusting one another. The community helped keep the Mexican heritage strong and tried avoiding becoming an American by speaking their native language, celebrating holidays they would normally celebrate in Mexico, and by not turning

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